


A Bug's Life

by Shiruke_Lightheart



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon | Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Versions
Genre: Abuse, F/M, Sex, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Wounds, getting hit with a golf club, they also kinda do the nasty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-04-18 12:48:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14213502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiruke_Lightheart/pseuds/Shiruke_Lightheart
Summary: When Team Skull breaks up and Guzma moves back in with his parents, his mom is very excited to have her son live with her again. His dad? Not so much...





	1. Return

A knock was heard on the door of the small cottage along the road of route one. “Who could that be this late?” the elderly woman wondered as she got up from the couch to see who was at the door. At the brief sight of the familiar bleached hair and slouched form, her step quickened and as the door opened she wasted no second hugging her son that had finally returned “Guzzie, I haven’t seen you in such a long time!” she exclaimed as the tall boy awkwardly petted her back and said “Yeah yeah…”. She stepped aside so Guzma could move inside but as he wanted to go into his room, the man with black hair he knew as his father stood in his way “So no you’ve finally broken up that shitty gang of yours you come crawl back to us like the pathetic scum you are huh? If it was just me, you would’ve never set foot into this house again.” He told him and Guzma held his head low as he spoke “I know. I’m sorry…”. In reality he wasn’t sorry and thought to himself ‘If it was only you I wouldn’t ever want to set foot in this house ever again either.’ But he knew better than to talk back to his dad. Especially after everything that had happened in his youth…  
A few days after he had come home though, his mom suddenly barged into his room “mom, how often have I told you to knock before coming in!” he said but his mom shook his head “There’s a cute girl asking for you Guzzie; is she your girlfriend?”   
A cute girl asking for him? The only girl Guzma could think of was Plumeria, but he was not sure his mom would describe her as cute… He followed after the elderly woman and when he came into the living room, he saw Moon, the new champion of Alola and the brat that he had fought against many times before standing there “She is the girl you were talking about?” Guzma asked his mom who nodded as she looked hopeful at her son in the hope that this cute girl indeed was his girlfriend “What do you want?” Guzma asked her with a clearly annoyed and scruffy tone making his dad look up from his newspaper which made Guzma scratch his undercut anxiously before asking her again in a nicer tone. “Hala asked me to get you. He wants to see you. He said something about willing to train with you to get you back on track after everything that had happened.”  
Guzma seemed to be thinking about it but as he wanted to tell her that he was not interested, his mom said “That’s great Guzzie! You should definitely take this chance!”  
Since he didn’t want to let his mom down, he nodded and followed the black haired girl outside.   
As they were making their way to Iki town, Moon started talking “Soo… Guzzie huh?” she teased him and Guzma’s cheeks turned a bright red colour “I didn’t think you were one to live at your parents house again. The big bad Guzma loves his mommy huh?”   
“Look, if all you’re gonna do is tease me, I can just go back and tell Hala to stick his offer up his ass. I wasn’t interested in the first place, I’m only doing this because my mom wants me to do so…” Moon looked down as Guzma said this and mumbled a silent apology  
After a bit of silence, it was Guzma who started talking again “You know, when my mom barged into my room to tell me you were there, she immediately asked if you were my girlfriend. What a joke! A guy like me with someone like you; I think my mom really thinks the world is a forgiving place.”  
When the girl walking next to him didn’t immediately have a snarky remark ready to fire at him like she always had, Guzma looked down to find the girl blushing at the thought “Oh? Could it be that the champion of Alola likes the big bad Guzma?” he teased her and she punched him in the stomach as she yelled “Not at all!” and ran a bit further while Guzma was doubled over in pain at the hit. She might be smaller than him, her punches hurt like hell. When he had caught up with her again he just smirked as he looked down and she looked away from him with a blush tinting her cheeks.  
When they arrived in Iki town, Hala was already waiting for them and greeted Guzma with a bone-crushing hug “Guzma, I haven’t seen you in a while, not since you were… well at least a few heads less tall. How are you doing?”  
Guzma looked down and back at Hala again “You know fully well what a happened Hala, don’t act dumb now. You must have heard a lot of complains from the island people that someone like me came back to MeleMele island. Everyone wants me gone…” Guzma said as he looked down. Moon wanted to say something but Hala shook his head “I know that’s how you feel Guzma, and it’s true that I have heard some complaints about accepting you back on this island. But this is Alola, people are forgiving here. I’m sure that if you show them that there is nothing to be scared off, they will forgive you soon enough.”  
Guzma looked up to Hala and shook his head “I think I might’ve gone too far…”  
“But Guzma, what you did wasn’t even your plan! Lusamine was behind all of this!”, Moon protested. She didn’t want Guzma to feel the way he was feeling now. He put a hand on her head and said “We’ll talk later brat,” as he walked off with Hala.

“So Guzma, where are you staying at the moment?” Hala asked the tall man walking next to him. Guzma was looking around nostalgic; he remembered how he used to play at Iki town with Kukui and Molayne all the time. Back when times were better and everything was easier. Before he had messed up his life…  
“I’m staying with my parents at the moment,” Guzma told the old man who looked surprised at the answer. Guzma had ran away from his home at the age of sixteen because of his father’s abuse, why return there now? “And you are sure you’re okay with that? You know I’ll always have a room ready for you, right?” Hala told him and Guzma nodded “I know. But it’s fine now. He’s acting strangely normal. Then again, I haven’t had the courage to go in against him because of everything… I’m mostly staying there for mom though…” Guzma explained and Hala nodded in understanding. “Well, what I actually let you come here for: I want to help you train, both to become a stronger trainer and to become a better person as well. Moon has opted to help with your training as well which might not be a bad idea as I’ve seen you two have grown rather close over the course of her island challenge.”  
“Yeah, she’s okay I guess…” Guzma told the Kahuna who only smirked as he looked the other side “So, what do you say? Can I expect you tomorrow morning for training?” Hala asked. Guzma seemed to be thinking about it. It certainly wouldn’t hurt coming over to train. Plus it gave him a perfect excuse to escape from the awkward situation he had with his dad right now and he could see Moon more; not that he ever would admit that he wanted to see her more though. She was just an annoying brat that defeated him and his team all the time. Well, back when he still had the team that is…  
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to come over and train with you guys. What time do you start?”  
“6 am sharp. Wear something light, it might get sweaty.” Hala told him and Guzma’s mouth fell open “Okay, maybe it will hurt to come over and train…” he mumbled. Hala laughed and hit Guzma on his back as they arrived back on the main plaza of Iki Town.  
Hala left Guzma to attend to some Kahuna business that had come up and Guzma walked back to Moon “So, did you still want to talk to me?”  
the black haired girl nodded and said “But I was thinking that we maybe could talk over some Malasadas and tapu cocoa?” she proposed as she looked away. From afar, Hau watched as Guzma put his arm over Moon’s shoulder and said something that made her blush. He didn’t get what exactly was going on and why his grandpa wouldn’t let him go with them to get malasadas, but as he felt Hala’s eyes burn on the back of his neck, he didn’t dare to disobey and follow them anyway…  
Once they reached Hau’Oli city, Moon noticed the looks people were giving Guzma and as she looked at the tall male walking next to her, she could clearly see he was feeling very uncomfortable with all those filthy looks on him and the whispers reaching the two of them. She then proposed “How about we just get some take-out malasadas and tapu cocoa and eat them on the beach. We will be able to talk more quietly there as well.   
Guzma let out a shaky breath as his right hand which had been laying on her shoulder until people started giving them looks went up to his head to nervously scratch his undercut and say “Y-yeah, I’d like that. But maybe you shouldn’t walk this close to me… People might start to talk bad about you as well…”  
Moon shook her head and laughed as she took his hand in hers, making him jump a little at her action as she told him “When did the big bad Guzma become this much of an anxious wreck?”  
As if her choosing to hold his hand and be seen with him gave him a little bit of confidence again, he told her “Plot twist sweetie, ya boi’s always been this big of an anxious wreck. I just used all of that bling to hide it,” he teased her. 

They got their food and drinks quickly and left for the beach where Moon knew the perfect spot and as they were sitting on some rocks looking out over the ocean, Guzma seemed to be the old Guzma she knew all over again “So, I’m guessing you’re going through some serious social anxiety?”  
Guzma looked away from her and towards the big isopod Pokémon that had gotten out of his ball on his own and was now nudging Guzma for a malasada. Guzma handed the bug half of his malasada and as his Golisopod nicknamed Boomer started chirping happily and nibbling down on the sweet, he told the girl next to him “It’s all kinda complicated. It was bad before and I’ve been through a lot. But the whole thing with Lusamine and the Ultra Beasts seemed to only have made it worse. The fact that everyone hates me because of being Lusamine’s lapdog doesn’t really help either. It’s all my fault for mistaking the feeling of respect towards me for love and doing anything she asked me to do. It’s all so stupid!” he yelled in frustration as he grabbed in his hair and started tugging the strands like he always did when he lost a battle. Before he could say the famous words ‘Guzma what is wrong with you!?’ Moon put a hand on his shoulder which made him snap out of it and told him in a caring voice “Guzma, nothing’s wrong with you…”  
He looked into her eyes, clearly shaken by what she had just said “But…” he tried but she shushed him and said again “Nothing’s wrong with you Guzma. You are perfect in your own way…”  
She had a certain look of adoration in her eyes as she looked at him and Guzma seemed to catch it too as he put his hand down on the ground next to her and started leaning in for a kiss. Moon quickly caught up to this and moved her body closer to his as well so their lips could meet in a tender shared kiss.  
 


	2. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guzma goes training with Hala and discovers that he's not the only one seeking redemption by doing so...

When his alarm went off at half past five the next morning, Guzma thought about just turning around again and going back to sleep instead of getting up and ready to train with Hala. Then the image of Moon flew through his brain and he thought back to last night. They had kissed, Moon had accepted him for who he was and not pushed him away like ninety percent of the people living on MeleMele island, and the rest of Alola.

As he walked through Hau’Oli city he was suddenly glad that Hala trained this early; most people weren’t awake already and he could walk through the city unbothered by others. As he got to the Hau’Oli outskirts where Moon and Kukui lived, he saw the black haired girl waiting  next to her house and the road leading towards Iki Town. She walked up to him and asked surprised “Guzma? Is that really you?”  
“what other guy do you know with bleached hair and purple eyeshadow?” he said back and she smiled. “You just look so different today,” she mentioned.

He had changed his style of clothes a little for today so people wouldn’t look at him too badly but he didn’t think he looked that different. He was wearing the same sweatpants, sneakers and undershirt like he always wore but had switched his usual short-sleeved skull jacket for a long sleeved light blue-ish grey jacket with purple details and a hood that resembled the head/face of a Wimpod. The sleeves covered his tattoos fully so he didn’t have to worry about people seeing them and relating him with Team Skull immediately. He had left behind all of his bling and the usual bright yellowy gold sunglasses that were planted in his hair had been replaced by a pair of normal glasses that rested on his face. When Moon reached up to touch those glasses, Guzma slapped her hand away and said “Hey, don’t do that! I need those to see!”  
“Don’t you usually not wear glasses, or at least not on your face?” Moon asked him and Guzma explained “Well, I have prescription contacts which I wear most of the time but I ran out and have to wait for my mom to get me new ones since most shops won’t sell me anything anymore. I’m lucky I can heal my Pokémon at the Pokémon center… And that’s only cause I know Hala and Nanu pretty good so they did a good word for me.”

As they started walking, Moon looked at Guzma who was just looking around at how the little caterpie were skittering through the tall grass at the sides of the road. She felt kinda bad for him; he might’ve done things wrong, seriously wrong. But nothing of it all had ever been his idea. After they had kissed yesterday he told her that he seriously regretted stealing those Pokémon and doing all those wrong things for Lusamine. He had never intended for team skull to be a group of thugs like that. He just wanted Team Skull to be a place that kids could call home when they had no where else to go home to, and all those kids had been so thankful to him for creating a home like that that they had started calling him boss and doing everything he asked them to do, even if those things were wrong…

They arrived in Iki Town at 6am sharp just like Hala had asked them to be there and met up with Hau who was waiting for Hala “Where’s the old man? He asks me to come out of bed this early and isn’t here himself?” Guzma said with a slight annoyed tone in his voice. Moon touched his hand which made him look at her and said “Don’t get your panties in a twist Guz, he’ll be here soon enough.”  
Guzma looked at her in disbelief, was this brat seriously teasing him, how dare she. Meanwhile, Hau was looking at the two of them in confusion; what had happened that they suddenly seemed even closer than they were just yesterday?

Then Guzma heard the door of the Kahuna’s house open and slam close again and he looked in that direction to see Hala standing outside the door with next to him two of his former grunts “A? B? what are you guys doing here?” he asked and the two grunts’ eyes lit up as they saw their boss “Boss!” they yelled in unison and attack Guzma in a hug. The tall man patted their backs as they hugged him and Hala, Hau and Moon looked surprised as they saw the intimidating man be so close to his former grunts. As they broke up the hug, A mentioned “Ey Boss, is that a Wimpod hoodie? That’s seriously lit yo!” Guzma’s face lit up at the mention of the hoodie of his favourite Pokémon and said “I know right! It’s so fucking awesome!”

 

After the intense training, Guzma was sitting down in the shadows to rest while the two grunts went with Hala to help him with some stuff. His hoodie had been thrown next to him and he looked like he was dying. Moon sat down next to him and handed him the bottle of water she had gotten for him. He gratefully took the bottle and drank half of it in one go. He almost leaned in to give her a kiss, but then realised that she might not want to take it that far yet. After all, they had never officially started going out, they just kissed once. But Moon had caught up to what he had wanted to do and when she noticed the hesitation she pulled him back down herself and pressed a soft kiss on his lips.

When he returned for dinner with his parents that evening, the first thing his dad asked when he came inside was “Where were you all day? You were gone when we woke up. I hope you weren’t getting in trouble again?”  
Guzma tried his best to not look or sound ticked off by his dad assuming he was a bad guy through and through as he said “I was training with Hala. He’s helping me get past everything from the past year…”  
His dad looked at him like he didn’t believe him and Guzma’s good mood he had gotten from spending the day with Moon and two of his grunts had been ruined immediately. He instead walked to the kitchen to see how his mom was doing with dinner.   
When he walked into the kitchen his mom seemed to be a lot happier seeing him back than his father as she said “oh Guzzie, you’re back! How was your training with Hala?”  
“It was fun,” Guzma said as he grabbed himself something to drink from the fridge “I met two of the guys from Team Skull again and the girl from yesterday.”  
“Guzzie, you’re not going back down the wrong path again, are you?”  
“No mom, don’t worry, they’re training with Hala too to get better. We’ve all changed mom… Also umm, the girl from yesterday… She kinda is my girlfriend now… A lot happened…”

The elderly woman turned around to look at her son and when she found him blushing as he sipped from his drink and scratched his undercut nervously, she hugged him and said “That’s wonderful Guzzie, she should come over some time for dinner or something.”  
Guzma just laughed it off and said “Sure,” as he walked out of the kitchen. He wasn’t anywhere near ready to let Moon come over to his house, not with his dad here at least. She wasn’t ready to get in on such a big part of his past…”

As he flopped down on his bed, he reached for his phone and searched the contact list for Plumeria. She might’ve said she didn’t want to talk to him again, but he wanted to let her know how he was doing and that he was trying to get his life back on the rails. He knew she only wanted the best for him as she warned him time and time again for Lusamine using him for her evil plans, but he had never listened to her and pushed away his best, and maybe at some point only, friend.

_Hey Plumes,_  
I know you said you didn’t want to talk to me anymore and I don’t even know if this message will reach you or if you’ve blocked my number; but I just wanted to let you know I’m trying my best to get my life back on the rails. I’m training with Hala to become stronger and be a better person and something is happening between Moon and me as well. I also saw A and B today. They were training under Hala as well and looked very happy.  
I had to move in with my mom and dad again but dad is acting strangely normal to me, he hasn’t done anything to me except making snide comments but I can handle that since every single human being seems to do that towards me right now…  
I hope that you might want to see me again sometime  
G

He put his phone down on the nightstand as his mom called for him that dinner was ready and just hoped that Plumeria would get his text and let him know something sooner or later…

 

 


	3. Plumeria

As Plumeria was cooking for herself and the two grunts living with her, one of them came up to her holding her phone saying “Hey Big sis, you got a message from the boss.”  
Her initial thought was to tell her to erase the message and not pay any mind to it, but she couldn’t get it over her heart to just erase the message from Guzma without even reading it first. Maybe it was something important. “I’ll read it later, just put it down on the counter.” And however much she tried, she never got him fully out of her head. He had been her best friend for years before ‘all that’ with Lusamine happened after all.

 

After dinner, she read the text Guzma had sent her and couldn’t stop smiling afterwards. Guzma was still anxiety in human form but at least he was doing okay. She should meet up with him again to see if he was really doing all that well while living with his parents. So she tapped on the reply button and typed in:

_‘Good to hear everything is going well. You want to meet up sometime?’_

Guzma’s phone vibrated as he walked out of the bathroom getting a towel through his hair to get it dry. He unlocked the phone and saw it was a message from Plumeria. So she hadn’t blocked his number after all! A smile lit up his face as he walked back into his room and read the text.

_‘Sure! I’d like to meet up again. We can catch up and have some fun like the old times! How about next week, is that all right for you?’_

He responded to the text and quickly got a reaction to meet up next Wednesday in Hau’Oli city.  
As he laid back down in bed, he smiled and closed his eyes as he thought about meeting Plumeria again. He couldn’t wait until next Wednesday.

He seemed to have fallen asleep cause he woke up when the sun had risen already. He looked to his alarm clock sleepily and found out it was already half past six. He bolted up and started dressing quickly. He had overslept on the second day of training with Hala.   
When he arrived in Iki town, he joined the training as if he hadn’t been late in the first place but Moon gave him a sideways glare and said “You’re late Guz.”  
“I know, I know. I fell asleep before I could set my alarm yesterday. Cut me some slack!”

They trained just like the day before and as Guzma was resting with Moon and Hau in the shadows again after the training, Guzma excitedly told Moon the good news he had gotten yesterday “Plumes wants to see me again! We’re meeting next Wednesday!”. Moon’s face lit up and she rested her head against Guzma’s shoulder as she responded “That’s great Guz! I’m really happy for you!”  
“How come you guys are so close all of a sudden anyway?” Hau suddenly asked which made them move away from each other. Had they been so obvious. “Like, Grandpa wouldn’t even let me get Malasada’s with you guys when you were going out the day before yesterday! It’s so not fair!”  
Guzma chuckled and was actually kinda happy that Hala had picked up on what was happening between the two of them and had stopped Hau from going with them on the night that they had actually gotten together. If Hau had been there with them that night, they wouldn’t have kissed and Guzma would’ve never gotten to show his feeling for Moon and he would’ve never known how she felt about him either.   
“Well, you see kid. It’s like this. Moon come here,” he said as he waved Moon closer. Moon leaned closer to the man with the bleached hair and when she was close enough to his liking; he leaned in further till their lips met and Hau’s expression changed into a shocked one upon seeing the two kiss in front of him.  
“You! You guys are! What!?” the teen exclaimed, not really believing what was going on here. His yelling had attracted A and B who came running to see what was going on and when they saw their former boss kissing the girl they knew he had liked for a long time, started cheering for him.

 

The week passed way too slow for Guzma who was still training with Hala and Moon everyday and was looking forward to meeting with Plumeria again. And as Wednesday finally arrived, Guzma wore some clothes that covered his tattoos and went to the spot where he would meet up with Plumeria. When he noticed her bright coloured hair in the distance, his mood automatically lightened. Like he was wearing his Wimpod hoodie partly to cover up his tattoos and partly because he thought it was absolutely lit, she too was wearing a Salazzle themed outfit instead of her usual team skull attire. Like expected, no one glared at Plumeria like the villagers glared at Guzma. He was happy that his plan to take everything on him so the rest of team skull still had a chance in life had worked…

She greeted him with a brief hug and Guzma asked “How’s life treating ya Plumes?”   
“Better than it’s treating you apparentely,” she said as she noticed the bags under his eyes. “I’ve just been getting up way too early for training with Hala. Who the fuck even starts training at 6 am?” he complained as they started walking around Hau’Oli city. Plumeria giggled “I’m happy you don’t seem to be that bad off after all,” she told him “How’s it at home? Your father still acting normal?” she then asked and Guzma nodded “It’s weird tho. It still feels like he’s pissed off all the fucking time; which I can understand honestly, but he’s not making any moves. I’m so on edge all the freaking time, scared of when he will finally snap and hit me again…”  
“Guzma, it’s not your fault okay? One day he’ll realise that too. Maybe that day has already come if he’s not hitting you anymore?”  
“I don’t know Plumeria… I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for that…” he said as he looked down and kicked a pebble forwards. Plumeria immediately noticed the drop in the mood when he had called her Plumeria instead of Plumes and changed the subject of the conversation “Enough sad shit now. What do you say we get some malasadas and tapu cocoa like the old times and talk some more?”

Guzma looked up hopeful but then remembered “They won’t sell me anything anymore…”  
“Then they don’t know me yet. We’ll go in there and they will serve you something. They have to see you’re not a bad guy. You just had some bad influence,” she said sternly as she pulled him with her inside the Malasada shop. She pulled him up to the counter where she placed their orders as Guzma just looked down and hoped they wouldn’t make too big of a problem out of this.   
“I’m sorry ma’am, but we can’t serve him here. He should know this too.” The girl behind the counter told Plumeria and Guzma tugged on her hand “Come on Plumes, I told you it was a bad idea…” But Plumeria shook her head “Then why can you serve me? I was the admin of Team Skull, you know? This is bullshit!”  
The waitress then spoke more quietly so Guzma might not hear as she said “We can serve you because you were only following his orders while team skull was a thing. Anyone would do what someone like he says in fear of his wrath…”

Plumeria’s eye twitched as she heard this and she held herself back to not just uppercut this girl into oblivion. But she calmly said “Guzma would never do that, you know. This big guy can’t even harm a cutiefly. And yet you and the rest of this motherfucking island judge him all because the newspapers and rumours made him look bad. We’re going Guz,” as she pulled him out of the malasada shop.

Once outside, Guzma looked down and said “I’m sorry for all that…”  
Plumeria looked at him and said “Guz, look at me.” Guzma lifted his head and was met by a hand on his cheek as Plumeria slapped him “Oi, what the fuck was that for yo!?” he yelled, making a few passer-by’s look at them as he held his cheek “Stop being so pathetic Guz. I know you’re probably going through a depressive period again but I want the old Guz back! Not a wimp like this! The old Guz wouldn’t have let a girl working in a Malasada shop turn him down when he wanted his malasadas and tapu cocoa! Now you’re trying your hardest to not even have to interact with anyone anymore cause they think you’re a bad guy! The old Guzma was proud to be a bad guy who had people quivering at his feet! I know he’s still in there, and I don’t want him to disappear because of everything that happened. I know you’re still shaken from Lusamine, and I know how you feel because of your dad and everything. But please… Give us the old Guzma back…” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks without even realising they were doing so. “Plumes…” he said softly. She wiped her tears, miraculously not smudging any of her make-up and they started walking again.

They went to the beach next, letting out their Pokémon to play and walked around a bit so they could talk and catch up. Guzma’s mood seemed to have changed a little since Plumeria had broken down in front of him, like he wanted to show her that he could still be the same Guzma he really was. Suddenly as they were talking, Guzma was soaked by a huge splash of water which Plumeria had seemed to avoid and when the white haired male recovered from the shock of being splashed by such a huge amount of cold water, he yelled “Boomer what the fuck!” as he snapped his head in the direction of the big Golisopod standing in the water looking guilty. He then ran towards the bug to take him back, but stumbled about halfway and fell face first in the water. When he got up again, he could hear Plumeria laugh at what had just happened and however he was happy she was laughing again, he couldn’t stand she was laughing with him so he looked up at the big isopod Pokémon standing in the water in front of him and said “Boomer, go splash Plumes a little too.”  
Plumeria, who had heard this, started backing up slowly as she saw the bug Pokémon nearing her and said “B-Boomer, you’re not really gonna do it, right? Remember all those pokébeans I fed you?”  
Boomer seemed to slow down a little at this and Guzma yelled “Show no mercy boomer, she was also the one who took your blankie the very same day!”  
With a newfound will to fight, the isopod Pokémon quickly got closer to the woman standing in front of him and released a huge burst of water all over her, soaking her from head to toe just like Guzma.

Now they were both soaked, and as they were laughing at what had just happened they started to feel the chilly air around them and Plumeria was the first one to shiver. “You wanna take a shower at my place to warm up?” he asked Plumeria who answered “Will that really be okay?”  
“Don’t worry about my dad, It’ll be fine. I don’t want you to get sick because of me,” he teased her and she stuck out her tongue as she called back her Pokémon. Guzma did the same, putting all his Pokémon back in their balls except for his Golisopod, who was now contently purring as Guzma scratched under his ‘chin’

They quickly reached the house on route one since it wasn’t that far from Hau’Oli beachfront and as Guzma let her inside, his dad sent a glare in their direction which he ignored and his mom approached them worriedly “My, what happened to you guys? You are completely soaked!” she exclaimed as Guzma shrugged off his wet jacket. “Boomer had some fun,” he told him mother who laughed at this and rubbed the big insect over his shell. “What have I told you about letting that creature roam inside the house!?” his dad yelled from the living room and Guzma sighed as he got Boomer’s PokéBall from his pocket and said “I’m sorry bud, you know what he thinks about you,” as he softly tapped the front of the bug’s head with the PokéBall.   
“And who might you be?” Guzma’s mom asked Plumeria who politely answered “I’m Plumeria. I’m Guzma’s best friend. I’ve been with him ever since the start of team skull.”  
When she said Team Skull, Guzma could practically feel the glare of his dad burn into his back but his mom didn’t seem to care. I’ll show you the bathroom Plumeria. You should take a nice warm shower while I put your clothes in the dryer and make some cocoa. Could you get her something to wear while her clothes dry in the meantime Guzzie?” she asked and Guzma responded with a simple “Sure,” as he went into his room to look for something that Plumeria could possibly wear while she waited for her clothes to dry.

When they had both showered, Guzma’s mom had given them a mug of homemade tapu cocoa and they had both gone to Guzma’s room. “Your mom is so sweet Guz; like, I almost want her to adopt me,” Plumeria told him and Guzma smiled “She is right, she’s the only reason I have to stay here. Me running away and being the gang leader of the gang that ‘terrorised’ Alola has been too hard on her already. I don’t want to hurt her with not returning for what my dad did to me in my youth as well…”

 

Not much later, Plumeria’s clothes had fully dried as well and Guzma saw her off. “I had a lot of fun today Plumes. We should totally do this again sometimes, maybe get some of the gang together and hang out a bit…” Guzma proposed and Plumeria lighted up at hearing this. “I would definitely like that Guz! I’ll text you when I get home, okay?”  
“Please do so,” he told her and with one more hug they parted again.

When Guzma closed the door of his house behind him again, his dad was waiting for him with a newspaper tightly rolled up in his hand. Guzma knew where this was going and tried his best not to sound absolutely terrified. “You’ve got some guts Guzma. Bringing one of your dirty bitches from team skull here,” his dad said and a shiver went over Guzma’s spine as he swallowed hard. But he remembered what Plumeria had said about being himself and he straightened himself so he looked taller as he said “Plumeria is not my bitch. She isn’t a bitch at all. And you  have no right to call her that either. We might’ve been in a gang for fucks sake, who the fuck even cares about all that!? You are the one that is really fucked up in your mind! You are the real bad guy here!” Guzma spat back and his dad honestly was taken aback by Guzma’s sudden change in attitude but didn’t let it bother him too much as he walked forwards towards Guzma, gripping the newspaper tighter in his fist. Guzma’s attitude, however he tried his best to keep it up as much as possible, crumbled quickly and he could feel the panic creep up along his spine until it reached his brain and the only thing he could think was _‘Run!’_

Before he could do anything, the newspaper hit his arm, and the pain spread throughout his entire arm. His dad might have grown older over the years, his strength certainly hadn’t gotten less. The newspaper hit him again on the chest this time, and once more on his arm and his head. Guzma was reduced to the small sobbing boy he had always been as a child again and fell to the ground, his body in a foetal position to lessen the damage done to him. But as the newspaper hit his back and right over one of the scars that were still there from when his dad had striked him just a little to hard with a golf club, he roared out in pain. After a while, his dad finally stopped and just walked away and put the newspaper down as if nothing happened. Guzma eventually got enough strength in his body to push himself off the ground and go lay in his bed, but his mental state had gone back to square one. What had he ever done to deserve this? Oh yeah…

 

 


	4. Stronger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some nsfw in this chapter

The next morning, Guzma had once again gotten up at half past five and was taking a shower, the bad memories from the previous evening temporarily repressed in his mind as he mindlessly rubbed his arms with the washcloth. When he suddenly felt a stinging pain on his left arm, he looked down to see what was going on and he noticed a fairly big bruise right where his skull tattoo was. It wasn’t totally visible because of the tattoo but the pain was all the same. Then, the memories of last night came flowing back in. Guzma’s hands went up to his head in panic and tugged at the bleached strands. His legs trembled underneath him and gave in, making him topple to the shower floor. It was only when he heard the voice of his mother ask “Guzzie, are you okay in there?” that he was able to snap out of the panic haze and respond as he got up again “Yeah, I just slipped don’t worry!”

Training with Hala went like always and when he dropped his jacket as he sat down to rest, Moon seemed to immediately noticed the barely noticeable bruise on his arm. She lifted his arm up and asked him with a concerned look on his face “Guzma, what did you do? That’s a nasty bruise!”  
Guzma immediately pulled his arm back as he scratched his undercut nervously and said “It’s nothing. I just bumped into something on my way back home yesterday.”

Moon looked suspicious at him for a moment before shrugging it off “Hey Guz, since I had a lot of spare money with my job as the champion, I recently bought a little apartment of my own. How about you come over tonight? Get away from your parents for a bit and grab a movie with your girlfriend?” she asked him. Guzma looked surprised, how come this brat had her life better under control than he did? But nevertheless getting away from his parents for a bit was more than welcome after what had happened last night.

“I’ll let my parents know. What time do you want me to come over?”   
“oh, umm, around eight or something like that,” she told him. She hadn’t really expected he would say yes so easily since lately it seemed that he was distancing himself a little from everyone. Maybe meeting Plumeria yesterday had been good for him…

 

It was half past seven when Guzma was in front of the door to what should be Moon’s apartment. It was in a nice area just outside of Hau’Oli city and people had certainly been looking weird to see him of all people come here. He had been so stressed about this that he was way too early at her place and that made him stress about the fact that he was so early. Just as his hands went up to tug on his hair, he heard a door open a few doors down which made him snap out of it and just knock on her door to seem normal to the person that had left the apartment a bit further down the hall.  
He heard the sound of her footsteps inside and not much later the door opened revealing the smaller girl in front of him rubbing a towel through her hair. “You’re early Guz,” she noticed as she stepped aside to let the tall man inside.

“I’m sorry, I had nothing to do really so I came a little bit earlier. I hope you don’t mind…” he said as he sat down on the couch “Nice place you got here. I wish I could afford something like this so I could get away from my parents,” he said as he lightly rubbed over his arm where the bruise from last night was. “You know, if you really need to get away from your parents for a bit at any time, you can just come over”  
“Really,” Guzma asked surprised. He never thought someone would ever care about him enough to do something like this for him. And Moon didn’t even know what was going on between him and his dad. “Of course silly. Why would I joke about that. I wouldn’t even mind having you around all the time. I’m serious about loving you, you know. I’m not just doing this as a sort of cruel joke…” she told him and Guzma looked down, angry at himself that he had even dared thinking about that “I know…” he told her “It’s just hard for me to believe that someone would actually fall in love with someone like me…”  
“well you better start believing it cause I’m right here silly,” she told him as she leaned in to press a kiss on his lips. “How about we watch a movie?” she then proposed “There’s this new movie that came out,”  
“Zoroark, master of illusion!” Guzma yelled excited and Moon’s eyes started to sparkle as Guzma seemed just as excited about the movie as she was. So Moon pressed a quick kiss on the man’s lips and then walked off to her room to fetch her laptop. She connected her laptop to the television and logged in on her Pokéflix account. After a little searching she found the movie and when she pressed play, she hurried back to the couch where she cuddled up with her boyfriend who looked surprised for just a moment before putting an arm around her and getting comfortable.

As the movie ended, Moon was crying a little and even Guzma had a few tears lined up in his eyes as the ending song started playing. But as soon as Moon looked into his eyes, the mood immediately changed and as their lips met again the music of the movie was shut out.

Moon felt Guzma’s hands slide down her back and then up again underneath her shirt and over her bare skin. Her own hands moved up to his face and into his hair where she ran her fingers through the bleached strands. To her surprise the bleached hair didn’t feel dead and hay-like; it was fluffy and surprisingly soft. And although his hair felt amazing as she ran it through her fingers, her hands quickly left his scalp and went down, resting on his cheeks and pulling his face closer against her as they made out.

Guzma felt the young girl’s small hips rub over his crotch and as he rested his hands on her behind and moved his hips against hers in the same rhythm she did, he suddenly realised just how young she actually was. He was already twenty-five while she had just barely turned eighteen a few months ago after she had become the first champion of Alola. He broke the kiss and asked her “Is this really okay Moon?”  
She looked confused since this came so sudden. She had no idea what he was talking about “What do you mean Guz?”  
“Well, you know. You’re so much younger than me. I mean, you’re barely legal. Are you okay with where all this is going?”  
Moon nodded and flashed a tender smile towards the tall man underneath her “I don’t care where this is going tonight Guzma. I won’t have a single regret of anything we do. Cause after all, I’m doing it with you. I’m doing it with the man whom I love…”  
Guzma then realised he had never felt like this in his entire life. He had never once before felt this loved by someone and he felt like his heart could burst “Damn it Moon, you’re gonna make me cry like this and ruin the mood.”

“Well, before that happens and the mood really gets ruined; how about we move to the bedroom so we can continue this wonderful mood and see where it leads us?” she said seductively and with a smirk, Guzma picked her up from the couch and said “I would very much like to do that.” as he carried her to the room where he had seen her take her laptop from earlier; the movie left playing its ending song as the two of them disappeared from the living room.

 

Once they had entered the bedroom, Guzma wasted no time putting Moon down on the bed and leaning over her, resuming the kiss they had broken a little while ago and pushing their bodies against each other in an attempt to feel more of each other and be closer to each other.

When the broke the kiss once more for air, Guzma looked down at Moon in a way that was almost asking for approval to take this to the next level, and as the black haired girl nervously nodded her head. Guzma opened his jacked and slipped it down his arms after which his tank top quickly followed. When he wanted to move his lips back to Moon’s lips and neck, the younger girl stopped him and Guzma looked worried. Was he doing something wrong? “Guzma. What’s this?” she asked him and confused, the tall male sat up and asked her “What do you mean?” she then lifted her arm as she sat up as well and touch a light purple bruise on his chest that he hadn’t noticed himself yet; but he fully well knew why it was there and how it had gotten there…

“It’s nothing Moon, I’m just not the most careful person,” he laughed it off and before she could say something back, his mouth was on hers again silencing her complains. Those complains quickly stopped as his lips left her mouth and moved lower to kiss her neck and her collarbones. His hands moved up and down her waist before dipping underneath her shirt again and pushing the fabric up, revealing her flower patterned lace bra. Moon gasped in surprise as she suddenly felt hands slip underneath her bra and cover her bare boobs “Guzma, your hands are cold,” she told him but he only smirked as he gave the globes in his hands a good squeeze.   
His hands soon moved to the back of her chest and started fumbling with the clasps of her bra to try and get them loose. But when it didn’t immediately work out and Moon could see that Guzma was slowly getting a bit frustrated with the piece of clothing not doing what he wanted it to do, she reached behind her back herself and quickly unclasped her bra and pulled her shirt over her head, now exposing her bare chest to Guzma.

Their lips met again and Moon’s hands roamed over Guzma’s broad body. He didn’t have a defined six-pack or anything really, but that little bit of chub he had fit him so well and he looked so good just how he was. When his hands went down to his pants and started undoing the knot that kept his sweatpants up, Moon swallowed hard. She had to admit that she was kinda nervous, this was her first time doing something like this after all; but she trusted Guzma and was sure that he would do everything in his might to make her feel good and make this as comfortable as possible. On the other hand, as she saw Guzma struggling with the knot on his pants, she knew he was nervous too and he let out a nervous laugh followed by him saying “I’m sorry. I’m hella nervous. It might come as a surprise to you, but this is actually my first time doing something like this as well…”  
When she heard this, Moon’s stress lessened a little bit; at least Guzma wasn’t an expert at stuff like this while she was still an innocent virgin.  
She flashed him a smile to tell him everything was gonna be okay “Don’t worry too much Guzma. I trust you. I’m sure you’ll do great.

He finally was able to unravel the knot now his stress had been reduced by her kind words and his pants slid down a little. When he slid them down completely and was left in his Beedrill underwear, Moon was deadpanned before laughing at him “Why did I expect you to have some kind of bug Pokémon on your underwear?” she laughed as she shook her head. Guzma was unamused by her humour and leaned down to whisper in her ear “You’ll see that I’ll use my stinger just like that Beedrill. But I’ll give you pleasure with it instead of pain…” which left the young girl fuming red in embarrassment as she stammered out “G-Guzma!”

As her eyes lingered a bit longer on his underwear, she saw the outline of his dick through the thin fabric concealing it and couldn’t help but notice that it was fairly big. Would she be okay? Wouldn’t it hurt? Would it even fit, he was so much taller and larger than her, his dick had to be big as well. She swallowed nervously and Guzma immediately seemed to pick up on this and kissed her on the lips as he told her “It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna go slow and I’ll be gentle. I’ll make sure we both enjoy this just as much.

He then hooked his thumbs into her pants and looked at her to see if she was okay with going further. When she nodded, he pulled her pants and panties down in one smooth move; exposing her fully to him which made her put her hands down to cover herself up in embarrassment. Guzma however, took her hands and kept them up so she couldn’t do so and told her “There’s no need to cover yourself up Moon, you look perfect,” and kiss her once more before pulling his own boxers down. As his cock sprung up in its erect state, Moon gasped a little. It looked big through his boxers, but seeing it standing tall like this was an entire different sight all together “Like what ya see babe?” he asked and Moon’s cheeks reddened almost immediately upon hearing him say this. When he wanted to lean in for a kiss again, he suddenly stopped and said “Fuck, I forgot about protection! You on the pill?” he asked. Moon nodded, temporarily too overwhelmed by the whole situation to talk as Guzma went on “Look, I don’t have any diseases down there or something that I could give you. Are you okay with me going in like this? If not, we’ll just stop here and I’ll make sure to get some before next time?” Guzma asked and Moon couldn’t help but think how this was an entire different Guzma than he always let up he was. He was really caring and wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable with and she was happy he turned out to be like this instead of an egoistic asshole who didn’t care about her during sex. As an answer to his question, she pulled him down and pressed her lips on his. When they broke up again she told him softly “Please Guz. I want you now. I don’t care about doing it without a condom for once, I trust you…”

Guzma’s cock surged upon hearing this and he almost lost control already. He had to calm himself down before he would get too excited and do something he wouldn’t want to do. So after a few deep breaths he steadied himself and grabbed his cock to lead it to Moon’s entrance.

When the tight heat engulfed his cock, he had to stop for a moment and keep his eyes shut tightly as to not get completely overwhelmed already. He had jerked off before; of course he had, he was a normal twenty-five year old guy; well normal when it came to bodily functions.   
Only when he felt he was fully in control of his body again, he moved his hips back again before slamming inside her, going slow at first but picking up the pace as he noticed she had fully gotten accustomed to his rather large size.

Moon had thought that it would immensely hurt for her to lose her virginity, she had heard a lot of bad things about how much it hurt before and had always been scared to do something like this because of that; but Guzma had really been as gentle as he said he would be and had gone really slow. He waited so she could get accustomed to his size and started out slow, only speeding up when he was entirely sure she was comfortable. She had fallen in love with him all over again and fell deeper in love with him with every passing second. “G-guzma, I love you so much,” she told him which caused a cocky grin to appear on his face as he responded “I know babe. I love you too. More than anything.”  
After a little while, Moon started to feel a coiling feeling in her lower abdomen; as if a knot was forming in her lower stomach and it was getting tighter with every single thrust of the white haired male on top of her “G-Guzma, I’m gonna come. I’m so close…” she managed to get out which got a very unusual reaction out of Guzma. “T-thank God,” he said quietly which made Moon look confused. Was he so happy that this would be over? Was she that bad at it? “I don’t think I can go on much longer either,” he added and suddenly everything made sense. He was a virgin just like her after all; she had heard things about male virgins and supposed that Guzma had already held out a pretty long time compared to other males.

She kissed him as she felt the knot in her stomach suddenly come undone as Guzma never stopped thrusting and rubbing her clit with his thumb. Her moaning was non-stop and Guzma quickly followed in this relief, moaning out her name followed by a few grunts as he tried to keep quiet but miserably failed. When the last spasms of pleasure slowly left his body and his muscles started to relax again, Guzma pulled out his now limp cock and rolled off next to the black haired girl. “By Arceus, that was amazing Moon!” he exclaimed and Moon smiled softly as she turned towards him and moved her body closer to his in an attempt to cuddle with the tall man next to her. Guzma quickly caught up on her intentions and wrapped his arms around the smaller girl laying in bed next to him to cuddle. He hadn’t felt affection this pure ever since he was really really young and it warmed his heart to finally have someone to share affection with again… “I really love you Moon. Thank you for everything you did for me…”  
When he didn’t get a response from the girl in his arms, he slightly raised his arm to check her face and saw that she had already fallen asleep in his embrace after the activities they had just had. “Did I exhaust you that much princess?” he muttered to himself as he suppressed a yawn himself. Soon enough he had fallen asleep himself too and dreamed of nice things for once as he was embracing the girl which he loved so much…


	5. Punishment

When Guzma woke up again, there was light coming through the window and he could hear the sounds of Pikipek outside. Moon was still sleeping next to him, curled up against him and softly breathing as she peacefully kept dreaming. Guzma propped himself up on his arms to look at her better, her black hair fell in her face and as Guzma stroked it back, she muttered something incomprehensible about someone stealing her food. Guzma chuckled lightly as he yawned and stretched his arms above his head. He noticed the notification light on his phone blinking and reached over to see who had sent him a message. When he unlocked his phone, he saw he had three missed calls and five new messages, all from his mom. _‘Oh shit!’_ was the first thing that went through his head as he saw this. Having that much missed calls and messages from one of your parents was never good. He opened the messages and read

_Guzzie, where are you?_

_Guzzie, can you answer me as soon as possible?_

_Did something happen?_

_Guzzie I’m really worried_

_Please come home…_

He didn’t know why his mother was so worried about him cause he had clearly told his father he would be staying over at his girlfriend’s place tonight. That was when he realised it. He had told his father since his mom was out last night. But his dad had probably not said anything about it to his mom. Or if he had said anything, something that wasn’t right…

He looked over to Moon who was still sleeping; he didn’t want to leave already, but it was probably better if he did so to calm his mom…  
He silently nudged the girl next to him in bed in an attempt to wake her up and she groaned as she slowly opened her eyes “What is it Guzma?” she asked sleepily “I have to go. There’s a bit of trouble,” he told her as he started to get up and looked around for his clothes. “It’s nothing serious, right?” she asked him, clearly worried about the tall man “No, don’t worry. You can go back to sleep. I’ll see you at Hala’s tomorrow, okay?”  
Her worries didn’t completely disappear but she had to trust him for now so she nodded and said “Sure. See you tomorrow.”  
Guzma kissed her and quickly left the apartment after that, hurrying back to his home.

 

When Guzma got closer to the cottage on the outskirts of Hau’Oli city, he heard yelling coming from the inside and hesitated to get closer. His hand instinctively went to his forearm where the bruise his dad had given him was as he swallowed hard. But he had to do this for his mom; she was worried about him because of his dad and he had to calm her down since leaving her alone with his father would only make everything worse…

He opened the door in one swing, making his parents look at him. A smile appeared on his mother’s face as she looked at him with teary eyes and immediately ran to him for a hug. Then his dad appeared behind the smaller figure of his mom and glared at him as he said “Why didn’t you tell us where you were going, Guzma?”  
This ticked him off even more. The fact that he didn’t tell him mom was usual behaviour for this man, but playing him like this while his mom was here with them was totally different. Was he trying to set his mom against him as well? He tried his best to not get angry, but it all pent up and Guzma exploded. He broke free from his mother’s embrace and grabbed his old man’s collar, which he pulled up as he brought his own face dangerously low to his “Listen old man. I can see what you are trying to do here and I won’t let it happen. I told you directly last night that I would be spending the night with my girlfriend and I had hoped that you would for once just act normal. But no, you always have to be the biggest asshole I’ve ever known. You might think that I’m a disgrace to your family and that what I’ve done is disgusting. I hate it myself too! But I can’t change what has happened already and I’m at least trying to better myself. But you are still the same disgusting person you were when I was younger. Next time you have a problem with me, you leave mom out of it and just come straight to me!” he told him and then whispered in the older man’s ear “Cause if I ever know that you lay even a single finger on mom, you won’t be able to lay your fingers on anything when I’m done with you,” as he threw the old man back and went to his room.

 

After those events, his dad seemed to have learned his lesson and was acting normal again for a few days. Guzma trained with Hala, Moon, Hau, A and B as normally and spent a lot of time with his girlfriend now as well. He never told her about what happened that day at his home though. He made up an excuse and told her that his mom had fallen and needed to go to the hospital. Cause although Hala knew what had happened in his past, he wasn’t ready to let her in on such a big part of his life. He didn’t want her to pity him or try to do something and accidentally make everything worse. He got through this as a kid on his own, so he should definitely be fine on his own as an adult. He knew that if it really got too bad, Hala would probably notice and get him away from there just like he had done when he was a kid…

He shouldn’t even be the one complaining. All the kids he had met during the events with Lusamine had turned out to have familial trouble, he wasn’t the only problem kid anymore. Moon’s dad had left her and her mom at a young age, after which they had moved to Alola to start a new life; Hau’s parents had died in an accident when he was still a baby and Lillie and Gladion… well, they had a whole bunch of trouble… And then he didn’t even start on all those kids who had joined team skull just to get away from their troublesome home situations. Life wasn’t good for everyone; he certainly had learned that when meeting all those kids he took in.

 

When he got home that afternoon after training, no one was home. He knew his mom would be out this afternoon, but he hadn’t heard anything about his dad being out as well. Well, it wasn’t like he cared what his old man did in his life, he was actually happy he wasn’t around. He took off his jacket which was a little bit wet from sweating a lot during training that morning and decided to take a shower to get rid of the smell of sweat.

He walked out of the shower humming as he was done and ruffled a towel through his hair as he got dressed in his usual attire; a white tank top and a pair of black sweatpants. When his hair was almost dry, he walked out of the bathroom, but before he could properly process what was going on, he felt something hard hit the side of his head, missing his left eye with only a few centimetres to spare. Guzma’s vision blurred from the impact and his hand instinctively reached up to where he had been striked. When he brought his hand in front of his eyes, he could see the blurry red image of blood on his fingers where he had just touched his head. He looked around to grasp an image of what was happening, but everything was blurry and he could feel himself stumble. He blinked rapidly to regain his normal vision but it didn’t work, maybe his lenses had moved a little from the impact. Then, finally, when his vision started to sharpen again, he looked around quickly and saw who had hit him. His dad was standing next to him with one of the little not broken or bent golf clubs in his hands. He was gonna get his revenge on Guzma now that his mom wasn’t here, and Guzma hadn’t even been able to defend himself.

His dad swung the golf club again, and this time it hit Guzma on the outside of his thigh, the pain spreading through all of his leg which made him topple to the floor. Then a fist was flung and Guzma was just a little bit too late to defend himself, making the fist hit him on his right eye. That was gonna be swollen tomorrow. Guzma tried to get up, but when he did so his dad swung the club again and hit him on his right shin and Guzma swore he could hear something crack. But then again, his blood was rushing to his head and his ears felt like they were plugged so he didn’t know if he had really heard that or if he was just imagining things.

All of a sudden, he felt like a little helpless kid again who’s father had gotten mad at him cause he hadn’t won the Pokémon contest he had trained so hard for. He was helpless and couldn’t do anything. But he wasn’t a kid anymore; how come he still couldn’t do anything against his father as a grown man that was at least two heads taller than his dad. Here he was again, on the ground underneath the abusive figure of his father as that old man swung around with a golf club. His mind stopped working and he only snapped out of it as he felt his father’s hand grasp him around his throat and push him up against the wall holding him like that. Guzma tried to breathe, but he could barely get any air in and out of his lungs with his father squeezing his throat like that

“Where’s the big bad Guzma now huh? All I can see is a fucking wimp!” his father told him and tears rolled down Guzma’s cheeks involuntarily. Of all the times to not have a single pokéball on him, this had to be it. His Golisopod could have easily helped him get out of this mess. That was exactly the reason why the isopod wasn’t allowed to roam free in the house anymore. He knew how bad Guzma’s father was and since he was a Pokémon and didn’t have any restraint towards people that hurt its trainer like that, he had tried to attack Guzma’s father over and over again at the littlest thing he did wrong. But now he could really use the big bug at his side….

Guzma weakly grabbed a hold of his father’s hand squeezing his throat and tried to pull it away so he could breathe again, but his father was still stronger than him; like he had always been. As Guzma’s dad caught on what he was trying to do, he swung his other fist again and hit the younger male right on his cheekbone.

Guzma had never felt this useless in a fight before. He had never lost this horribly from anyone since he was a child in a fistfight yet here he was, at the complete mercy of his dad’s hands. Maybe somewhere deep in his heart he still thought his father could change one day. Maybe, very maybe, a little piece in his heart loved his father even after everything the man had done to him and that was why he couldn’t win from the old man. He had never been able to beat up his dad like he beat up other people. He had always been holding back, right now he couldn’t do anything and it hurt him. Cause he didn’t want to love a person like this, he hated this man so much; but he still couldn’t do anything to him.  
It probably wasn’t because he still loved his dad somewhere deep inside, cause he loathed that man with his whole existence. The only reason Guzma could think of that made sense was that if he would beat up his dad like he did with other people, his mom would be disappointed in him. Cause his mom didn’t know what happened between the two of them. Well, she probably had an idea of what happened when he was younger, but there was no way that she knew it was this bad. And Guzma didn’t want his mom to be disappointed in him; cause however he hated his dad with a burning passion, he could never hate his mother…

His father finally let his throat go and Guzma’s hand went up to his throat to check if everything was still okay which it luckily was. But before he got the time to recover, the golf club hit his abdomen several times in a row and to protect his vital organs, Guzma turned around so the golf club would hit his back instead. It might have not been a good idea cause the iron stick hitting his sensitive scar tissue from the regular beatings with the same thing years ago hurt even more. But it was at least better than having some serious damage done to his vitals.

Guzma tried to endure the pain as much as possible, and just as he was about to pass out; the hitting stopped and his father started pulling him away from the wall. “Your mother is here. But we don’t want her to know of anything that happened here. So you will just go out from the back and come knocking on the front door in a few minutes saying that you lost a fight, do you understand that?” he said in a threatening voice. Guzma nodded carefully as he stumbled out of the back door, now it really felt as if something in his leg had cracked from being hit by the golf club of his father.

He did as was instructed and waited a few minutes before stumbling to the front of the house and knocking on the door. His mom opened and her face showed pure shock upon seeing him “Guzzie! What happened to you?” she asked. He must’ve looked like a mess; he had a split lip and a gash just next to his left eye while his right eye was already starting to swell from the hit he had gotten earlier, just like his cheek. There was blood on his shirt and arms and he was only really standing on one leg since the other one hurt so much. And although he didn’t know how his throat looked right now, he figured it must’ve started to swell a little as well.  
“I lost a fight, it’s nothing bad…” Guzma said. He hated lying to his mom about this; but then again, was he really lying? He had lost the fight to his father after all…

“Oh honey, come over here,” she said as she lead him to the couch and started tending to his wounds. “Who did this Guzzie?” she asked him as put a band-aid over the gash next to his eye and Guzma could just feel his father’s glaring telling him “If you say one thing, you’re dead!” so he just shrugged and lied to his mom once more as he told her “Just some random thug that apparentely had some business with me. I was unprepared so I didn’t really get a chance to fight back. And I didn’t want to disappoint you by fighting…”. This was again half true since his dad had surprised him when he hit him as he came out of the bathroom and he hadn’t wanted to fight back because he didn’t want to disappoint his mom. His mom took his hands in hers and looked into his eyes sternly “Guzzie, if someone ever does something like this to you again, please fight back. You won’t disappoint me by defending yourself. It hurts me more to see you like this than to know that you hit a person that started a fight, she told him and Guzma could see that it really hurt her to see him beat up like this. If only he could tell her what really happened… He was sure she would leave that man if she knew that he was the one who beat up her son, even as a kid. But he couldn’t…

 

 


	6. Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter, my European ass was busy celebrating Eurovision all week long XD

When his mother had tend to his wounds, she had helped him to bed and gave him an ice pack for his neck so it wouldn’t swell too much and he wouldn’t have trouble breathing tomorrow. She then prepared some tapu cocoa for him and sat with him until he had fallen asleep.

The next morning, Moon was waiting for Guzma. When he didn’t show up on time to go train she didn’t give it much though other than _‘He must’ve overslept again,’_ and went to Iki town on her own. When she saw Guzma’s mom talking with Hala though, she worried that maybe something was wrong with him and walked just close enough to hear what they were talking about

“You see, Guzma got into a fight yesterday and he’s really beat up. He’s resting in bed now but he really couldn’t make it here today…” she told the Kahuna who nodded understandingly “That’s understandable. When he wakes up, tell him that he’s free from training till he’s feeling better and that I wish him a fast recovery.”  
“I’ll let him know. You really are a good man Hala-san,” she told him and he nodded “I try,” as he led her back to the entrance of Iki town.

 

When Guzma woke up, he tried to get up from his bed. He must be late for training, the sun had already risen high on the sky. But as soon as he tried to move, pain struck through all of his body and he remembered what was going on. The ice pack on his throat had long ago stopped being cold, but he guessed that it had helped a bit since his throat hadn’t swollen too much. His right eye however was forced close because of the swollen skin on his eyelid and cheek; the area above and next to his left eye where the gash was hurt a lot and the smallest movements made his stomach and back ache horribly. He didn’t remember when he had last been this beat up, whether it was from a street fight or his dad. This had to be by far one of the worst times.   
He tried to get comfortable again when suddenly his mom came into his room “How are you feeling Guzzie?” she asked as she put a glass of water and some pills down on his night stand. “They said these were the best painkillers I could give you right now so make sure to take one when you’re in a lot of pain, okay?”   
Guzma tried to push himself up to talk to his mom properly but pain shot through his abdomen as he tried to do so, so he just gave up and plopped back into the pillow as he grumbled “I’m fine. Never been better, can’t you see?”  
His mom giggled “At least you can still joke around. I went to Hala this morning and told him you wouldn’t be going to training for a while. He said you should take your time to recover.

Guzma grumbled, if his mom had been to Hala this morning, Moon surely had seen her and if she had somehow heard what had happened to him she would get worried for sure. She might even go as far as to come here to see how he was doing. And he wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t want to face her while he was looking like this. She would start prying around for what had happened and he wasn’t ready to tell her about his father. Plus, if his mother had told Hala, the old man would probably already be thinking in the direction of his father beating him up again and he just didn’t want to deal with all those worried people right now…

“Want me to get you another ice pack Guzzie? Or something to eat or drink perhaps?” Guzma rubbed his temple and shook his head “I’ll go get it myself. Don’t worry about me.” But as he tried to get up again, pains shot through his guts again and he froze in pain, sitting hunched over on the bed. His mother rushed over to him and softly pushed him down again “You really shouldn’t try to get up already Guzzie, you’re beat up pretty bad. I’ll be back in a bit, don’t worry about me please, worry about yourself for a bit now.” As she walked out of the room, Guzma felt guilt creep up on him again. His mother was such a sweet person and he felt bad about her being together with someone like his dad. She deserved so much better and he wished he could give her that, but every time he came back home bruised or hurt; he saw the pain in her eyes and how she did everything to still make him feel at home even when the rest of the island would rather not see him again ever.

She returned with a new icepack, a glass of water and an energy bar and put them down on the table next to his bed. Guzma sat up really slowly now to avoid the pain and accepted the glass of water from his mom. When he had put down the glass again, he told his mom “Thank you for everything you do for me mom. I know it might not always look like I do and I can be an asshole sometimes, but I really appreciate it…”  
His mom hugged him and Guzma groaned in pain as he softly patted her back when she said “I know you love me Guzzie. And I could never see a bad person in you, you will always be my little boy.”  
“Mom, I’m like six foot tall, I’m not little anymore…”  
She shushed him and said “Don’t protest Guzzie, it won’t work.”

As she picked up some pieces of clothing that were on the ground, she informed him “I’ll be away this afternoon, will you be fine with dad?”  
Guzma’s eyes went wide in fear and he shook his head “Can’t you stay?”  
“It’ll only be for a few hours Guzma, I thought you weren’t little anymore?” she teased him and Guzma looked down. He hadn’t been able to defend himself against his father while being in prime condition, how could he protect himself now?

 Not much later, Guzma heard his mom yell “There’s food for the two of you in the fridge!” and the door closing shut. Now he was all alone with his father, would the old man beat him up even more? Just as he was thinking about the possibilities of what could possibly happen while his mother was away, the door to his room opened and he saw his father standing in the door opening. He walked in and just stood in front of Guzma’s bed with his arms crossed as he looked down on him “Pathetic,” he said “Look at you; always boasting about being the ‘big bad leader of team skull’ a few months ago and now you lay here all beaten up by your old man. I’m starting to think that that pathetic bunch of losers you called team skull only looked up to you and listened to you because why wouldn’t they. A bunch of pathetic idiots can only follow an even more pathetic idiot, no?”

That was when Guzma snapped again. He couldn’t care less what his father said about him, but no one talked like that over his team. They were like his family, they felt more like family than his father had ever done. He ignored the pain as he got up and grabbed his father by the collar again “No one, and especially not you talks like that about my team!”  
“Oh? So now you’re trying to act all tough again, it might’ve worked that one time last week, now that I’ve seen just how little you’re capable of, I’m not scared anymore,” his father said as he grabbed Guzma’s wrist tightly. Guzma swallowed hard as he saw the look in his father’s eyes. Had he gone too far again, what would his dad do to him now. “Seems like you still haven’t learned your lesson, huh? You’re such a persistent brat.”  
Guzma saw his dad pull back his left arm and he still saw the light reflecting on the golden wedding ring before everything went black as his dad hit him right in the face.

When he woke up again, his mom was putting a fresh ice pack on his forehead and he felt pain stinging all throughout his face. His hand went up to hold the ice pack in place as he fully opened his eyes and was met by even more pain as the light shone right into his eyes “Guzzie what happened?” his mother asked and Guzma only groaned as an answer “When I came back last night you were bruised up even more and you had blood all over your mouth area and on your nose and dad said he didn’t know what happened,” she told him. Guzma just shook his head, knowing what would happen if he told his mother what had really happened and told her “I don’t really remember anymore, I must’ve bumped my head into something on my way to the bathroom…”

“You ought to be more careful Guzzie, you’re already so beat up!” she scolded him and he just laughed it off ad he closed his eyes and fell back asleep again.

 

Two weeks passed and Guzma was back to training with Hala and hanging out with Moon. When they had asked what had happened and why they couldn’t visit him while he was out, he just gave them the same excuse he had given his mother “He had gotten in a fight and was embarrassed to be seen because he had been so beaten up by a mere punk. Hala gave him a questioning side-eye but then shrugged it off as he wanted to trust Guzma in the decision to come to him for help if something was really wrong.

Weeks passed quickly and Guzma tried to stay away from home as much as possible cause when he did come home and stayed the night, there was a big chance that his dad would just beat him up even more. So he just stayed over at Moon’s place as much as possible; but even that was getting harder and harder since hiding his bruises was starting to get harder and harder and almost impossible while they had sex. And it wasn’t like Moon didn’t notice that he started to take off less and less clothing while they did it or that he was getting a lot more aggressive and cranky because he was in a bad mood because of his dad. So after roughly a month, Moon told him “Guzma, I really love you, but the way things are going now isn’t good for me at all. I can’t do this anymore Guz… I’m breaking up with you… If you go back to being your old self, you can always come talk to me again and maybe we can try again, but with how you are now I don’t think we will last Guzma.”  
“I… I understand. Thank you for keeping up with me for this long Moon, I’ll never forget it…” he said as he packed his stuff and walked out of her apartment with his head hung low.

His feet brought him to Hau’Oli beach, to the spot where he had kissed Moon on that day a few months ago. Back then, everything had been so good. But then his dad started abusing him again and he had ruined everything. He sat down on the rock they had been sitting on back then too and broke down in tears as he remembered all those fun times they had been through. He had ruined everything, all because he was too stubborn to get some help. He was just so scared of what his dad would do to him. The biggest part of his body was covered in bruises from the last time he had been at home and everything hurt. His body, but his mind as well.

Through the tears in his eyes, he looked forward and noticed the cliff in front of him. He knew it was pretty deep and had some rocks at the bottom so if anyone were to fall off it would mean the end; that was also why people weren’t allowed to be up here. A little voice in the back of his mind said _‘Jump!’_  but Guzma shook his head. He couldn’t be thinking this. The last time he had been suicidal was when he was a year of sixteen, right before he had ran away from home and started a life on his own.   
But the voice sounded again, louder this time _‘you know, if you just jump everything will be over and you won’t have to suffer anymore. And it’s not like anyone will miss you now… Just jump Guzma, just a few steps and you won’t have to suffer anymore…’  
_ As if he was pulled towards the edge, his legs started moving on their own. He looked down and just as he started closing his eyes to prepare himself, Boomer got out of its pokéball by itself and started making screaming-like clicking noises. Guzma snapped out of the daze he seemed to be in and realised what he was about to do. He shook his head as he quickly moved away from the edge and fell backwards on the ground where he broke down in tears again. Boomer rested his chin on Guzma’s shoulder and Guzma hugged the big isopod Pokémon, his tears falling down his cheeks and rolling down the hard armor like body of the Pokémon. “I’m so sorry buddy,” he told the isopod and realised _‘If I were to kill myself there would be people missing me… My Pokémon would have no one to take care of them anymore, my mom would be left alone with my dad, Plumeria and the kids would probably miss me as well. I’m pretty sure that Moon and Hala would be pretty shook as well…’_

He took his phone from his pocket and went to the message log with Plumeria   
‘I’m sorry,’ he typed and pressed send.

 

Why he had come here? He wasn’t entirely sure himself either but as the white building appeared from behind the clouds he knew he couldn’t go back anymore. He didn’t know why he thought he would find people who could help him here at Aether Paradise since he only knew like three or four people here; but maybe Wicke or Lusamine would want to talk to him and maybe get him so help…

But as he entered the building, Wicke was the first one he met and as she noticed him she said “Mister Guzma, what are you doing here? Do you need something?”  
Guzma teared up at her usual kindness and as he managed to get out “Please help me,” he broke down again, starting to cry and hyperventilate. Several workers stopped as they noticed what was happening but didn’t quite know what they had to do so Wicke instructed them “Take him to my office and make him so tapu cocoa! I’ll be there as soon as possible!”  
Two grunts took him towards Wicke’s office and another one made a cup of tapu cocoa which was sure to calm the tall man. When Wicke returned to her office she had brought Faba along and Guzma was sipping the hot chocolate as he sat in Wicke’s chair.

“Ah, the befamed Guzma, it has been a while since we last saw each other, although I remember that you were looking a lot better when we last met…” Faba noticed as he sat down in another chair that was on the opposite side of the pristine white desk. “Sup Branch boy,” Guzma greeted the blond man who seemed a bit ticked off at the nickname the tall guy had for him but didn’t say anything of it.  
Wicke sat down as well “Now Guzma, can you tell us what is going on. You came in here asking for help but I have no idea what you need help with…”

“C-can you promise me to not tell anyone else ever. I don’t know what _he_ might do if he finds out…” Guzma asked. Wicke and Faba looked at each other, then back at Guzma and nodded in agreement.”  
Guzma looked around as if that man could be here listening to what he was saying but of course he wasn’t and Guzma started telling the two of them what was wrong.

After he had told his story to the two Aether foundation employees, they looked at each other and for once Faba’s eyes didn’t seem so heartless and emotionless as they always did. They looked soft and compassionate. “Faba, I think you might be able to help him maybe a little, am I right?” Faba looked back and forth between Wicke and Guzma and sighed. Before he could say anything Wicke mentioned “I know I’m the only one you ever entrusted with this, but maybe it might be good to tell your story to Guzma as well. He told you everything he has never told anyone else too…”  
“I know, I know. I’ll be back to work in a little bit, I’ll just take this guy with me for a bit,” Faba told Wicke who just smiled and replied with a simple ‘sure’

Guzma followed the blond man out of Wicke’s office and down the hallway to another, slightly bigger office that had a gold placate saying ‘ _Branch Chief Faba_ ’ next to the door. Faba let the tall man inside and followed right after, closing the door shut once he was inside as well. They both sat down at the desk facing each other and Guzma looked at Aether’s Branch chief who seemed to be having a hard time sorting everything out in his head which was normally so easy for him. “Is everything all right with you?” Guzma asked out of concern, he had never seen the normally so composed man this out of it.

“It’s just that,” Faba started and sighed as he regained his composure once again “It’s just that hearing your story stirred something inside of me. You see, I went through something similar as a kid…”  
“Your dad beat you up with a golf club as well?”  
“Well, not entirely the same…”  
“Ya wanna tell ya boi?”  
“I suppose it would be good to get this off my chest once more,” Faba said as he sighed once more “You see, my dad was an alcoholic who got my mom pregnant by practically raping her while he was drunk one evening. He wouldn’t let my mom abort me while she didn’t want kids at all so they were stuck with a kid they didn’t want neither could really afford. My dad was always verbally abusing me and my mom never skipped a chance to tell me how unwanted I was and how bad I was at everything. So I worked the hardest I could, strived to be the best at everything. I never got any grades under 90% and made sure to not make mistakes in everything my parents asked me to do; just to get at least a little recognition from either one of them. My mom died when I  was sixteen and my dad then kicked me out of the house so he didn’t have to spend any more money on me. I started working as a part-timer here at Aether while also focusing on my studies and making sure my grades wouldn’t drop to at least get some recognition from the people here at Aether. When ma’am Lusamine immediately offered me a job when I finished my studies, I felt like I had finally accomplished something in my life, like I had finally gotten the recognition I wanted… So however I should probably hate my parents to death, I can’t help but actually be grateful because without them I would’ve never gotten this far…”

“Look Faba, I know it might be hard to believe me right now, but it really isn’t unusual to still ‘like’ your abusive parents; they are still your parents after all. I find myself being just fine to beat up any street thug that wants a fight, but if I’m in front of my dad and have to fight back, I’ve never been able to really hurt him while he still keeps hurting me over and over…” Guzma said as he lifted his white tank top and showed the blond man the fading bruises all over his torso. Faba gasped lightly as he saw the severity of the bruises and cuts he had on his skin and the several scars tattered all over his body, but Guzma continued “Yet however I know that man will never change, I keep going back… I just can’t stay away you know? My mom is still so nice, even though she acts like she doesn’t know it’s my dad bruising me up every goddamn time and she keeps turning a blind eye to both his and my bad actions…” Guzma scrunched up the fabric of his pants as he looked down, frustrated by his own actions.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up “You don’t have to be so hard on yourself Guzma, they’re still your family. Of course you wouldn’t beat them up like you would beat up complete strangers.”  
“But why does it hurt so much then. I don’t want to feel like killing myself is the only way out of this situation anymore. Moon broke up with me because I was distancing myself because of the abuse and she was the only person I could really rely on anymore,” Guzma said as tears started to fall from his eyes “I don’t want to die! But right now it feels like the only option. Only then I can repay what I’ve done and give my parents peace in their life! But I want to live!” Guzma yelled. He was getting close to a mental breakdown right now and his breathing started to get laboured as if he had just ran across Po Town to get inside before the rain got the best of him. As he struggled to catch his breath, he heard the voice of Faba saying “Guzma, Guzma breathe. You have to try and calm down now,”

It took him about thirty minutes to actually calm down and when he finally had caught his breath and was calm again, Faba asked him “Is there someone else that knows this, or at least  the basic information about this? Someone we can contact that might be able to help you get out of this situation? I know you said you didn’t want this to get out in fear of your father finding out, but we have to get you out of there before you do something stupid.”  
Guzma wanted to shake his head and say no, he had never told anyone about this up until now. But then he realised, there was someone else who knew about everything that had happened in his past and had some power to help him “Kahuna Hala. He knows what happened in my youth…”

 

 


	7. Help

“Yes, I understand. I’ll tell him. Yes, we’ll depart in a bit. We’ll see you in a bit.” Faba ended the phone call with Hala as he went back into his office where Guzma sitting anxiously “What did he say?”   
“He said that he was already suspecting it when you stopped showing up for your training. He also talked to Moon a few hours ago who told him everything. He has a room ready for you to stay in so you don’t have to worry about having to go back to your parents. He also called you an idiot for not going to him before everything got this bad,” Faba explained and Guzma looked down “That’s so Hala…”

“I have a ship ready for us, I’ll accompany you to Iki town, even though that means working overtime tonight, I can’t have something happening to a person left under my care.” Faba said as he rubbed his temples a little  
“Faba you really don’t have to-,”  
“I insist,” the blonde man said as he lead Guzma out of his office and down to the docks where a small boat was waiting for them to go to MeleMele.

The trip didn’t last long and in less than thirty minutes, they were standing in the MeleMele harbour and walking in the direction of Iki town. Right as they were walking into Hau’Oli city, Guzma stopped dead in his tracks and Faba looked back to see what was going on?  
Faba saw Guzma looking forward with wide eyes filled with fear and when he looked back towards where Guzma was looking, he saw a man with black hair and a stern expression that reminded him of Guzma’s expression towards the end of the Ultra Beast events standing a few meters from them. He quickly connected the dots and made out that this must be Guzma’s father.

“I knew you would be coming back to MeleMele and run to Hala for help again. But I won’t let you do it this time, it wouldn’t end well for me if you did so. So just quietly come with me and you won’t suffer too much,” the man told Guzma and as Faba looked back towards Guzma he saw the tall male shaking his head no. “I won’t come with you this time. I know what you’re gonna do and I’m not gonna fall for it again! I don’t even fucking care what happens to you when I go to Hala. Both me and mom would be much happier if you were just gone!”

The old man started getting closer to Guzma “You say you would be happy with me gone, but how do you think we feel after everything you’ve done! Don’t you think we would rather have you gone instead!”

Guzma was taken aback by this and took a step back as his dad got closer and started raising his fist. That was when Faba set a step aside and stood in between the two of them “I think that will suffice, don’t you? Why don’t you just leave now and leave Guzma alone and then we’ll all forget what happened here just now, okay?”

The black haired man however didn’t stop and just said “Why don’t you step aside for a bit and don’t stick your nose in other people’s business,” as he striked with his fist and hit Faba full on his cheek and nose, knocking the branch chief down on the ground which made his glasses fall off.   
Just as he was about to strike again and hit Guzma this time, a deep voice was heard “That’s enough.” Guzma looked up and saw Hala standing a little further behind them with agent Jenny next to him. Jenny rushed over to Faba to see if everything was okay, but he assured her that it was only a little bruise and a nosebleed and was quickly helped up by her again. Hala patted him on the back “You can go back to Aether now, I’ll take care of this from now on…” before walking up to Guzma’s father who was still standing right in front of Guzma with his fist raised dangerously.

Hala grabbed the man’s fist and looked him right in the eye “We saw everything that happened just now. Maybe I can’t let the cops take you with them for abuse since I don’t have facts of that, but I can let them take you for violence which we saw right here and now. Officer Jenny, you know what to do!”

As his father was taken away by officer Jenny and Faba had departed back to the Aether foundation again, Hala now directed himself to Guzma “And for you,” he started and Guzma feared he would be getting a huge speech about how he should tell Hala when he had a problem and not just crop it up like he always did, but Hala didn’t say anything about that, he just said “You’ll be coming with me to Iki town. You can stay with Hau and me for as long as you’d like, I made your room ready already. And there are two very concerned ladies waiting for you there as well…”

Guzma looked questioning, two concerned ladies? He had no idea what Hala was talking about… Then again, when did he have an idea of what that old man was talking about…

They soon arrived in Iki town and Guzma suddenly understood what Hala meant with two concerned ladies as he saw Moon and Plumeria sitting on the stairs of the stage in the middle of the town. They both got up and Plumeria was the first one to run towards him, greeting him with a slap in the face and then a hug as she sobbed “You’re an idiot Guzma! I though you had killed yourself! Sending me that stupid text and then not responding anymore! You’re so fucking stupid! I was so worried…”  
Guzma awkwardly hugged her back until she let go of him and Moon stepped forward as Plumeria rubbed her eyes to free them from tears.

“Hala told me everything Guzma… I’m so sorry for not understanding how you felt; I must be the worst girlfriend ever. Do you want to give me another chance?”  
Guzma stepped forwards and hugged the smaller girl “Yes! I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything. It’s all my fault!”

Moon shook her head, it wasn’t his fault at all! “Do you have a place to stay already Guz? You can come with me if you want,” she told him but Guzma shook his head “I think I’m gonna stay with Hala a few days, but I’m sure you’re always free to come over here, right old man?” Guzma asked and Hala nodded “Of course she is!”

Hau, who had overheard part of the conversation, walked up to them and said “So Guzma will be staying with us again?” Hala nodded and Guzma ruffled the young boy through his hair “Guess we’ll be stuck together again, huh?”

Guzma still remembered the time when he was fourteen and had tried to run away from home already from everything that happened. He had gone to Hala, who was training him at that moment and had told the kahuna everything about his dad and what he did to him. Hala had acted quickly and gave Guzma a room to stay in. He lived with Hala and Hau, who was 5 back then, for about three months; then his father came over to Iki town and dragged him back home. Hala hadn’t been able to do anything back then because of legal reasons; he didn’t have proof of the abuse Guzma went through other than what the young boy had told him and that man was still his father, he couldn’t get his son away from there without a good reason of which he had proof…

Guzma had been an asshole towards Hau back then, his happy-go-lucky personality bringing back old memories to him with how everything had started; so he kept pushing the young child away. Eventually they seemed to have warmed up a bit to each other, but Guzma was quickly taken away from Hala’s place. When they had met each other during Moon and Hau’s island challenge, Guzma knew about the internal struggle Hau had with overcoming his grandfather and while Moon had been surprised to see the interaction between the two of them at that point, Guzma and Hau had always shared a bittersweet bond…

 

Days passed slowly while Guzma was at Hala’s place. He had picked up training again slowly and Moon stayed over to comfort him. But even Moon sleeping with him didn’t stop the multiple nightmares he had every night and Guzma was left more and more tired every day, being unable to sleep in the end and picking his insomniac characteristics back up which worried everyone.   
Hala arranged a psychologist Guzma could talk to and soon enough Guzma was prescribed antidepressants and some sleeping powder so he could get to sleep again. However, he was still often found sipping tapu cocoa on his own in the living room at 3 AM as he had been awakened by nightmares once more and Hala forced him to stop training and take it easy for a while until he was feeling better.

Moon tried to convince him time and time again to go with her to Hau’Oli city or the beach so he could relax even if just a little, but Guzma was too scared to go outside of Iki town, which he knew was safe. He was too scared to meet his dad again, if he had gotten free already. He also feared that his dad would just come over to Iki town and demand him to come back home with him like he had done when Guzma had stayed in Iki town as a kid, but to his surprise it wasn’t his dad that came over but his mom. She had a bag of clothes with her and looked really sad.

When Guzma was alone with her to talk, she explained “I heard everything from Hala over the phone. I’m so sorry Guzzie. I’m sorry I didn’t do anything while I suspected your father from doing this. I’m sorry I didn’t do anything when you were a kid. I’m just so sorry; it’s all my fault that you started team skull and that everyone on this island doesn’t like you anymore while you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m so sorry Guzzie!” she was sobbing as she told him this and Guzma pulled her into a hug as he told her “You don’t have to be sorry mom, it’s not your fault any of those things happened. And even if it were, I should be grateful. Without team skull, I had never met Plumeria and Moon and all those kids who were part of the gang and had gone through similar youths as I had. Without team skull I had never met the people at Aether paradise who handled quick and got me here. Without team skull I would’ve gotten nowhere in my life. I love you mom, but I hope you understand that I can’t come home anymore…”

She nodded  “I understand. I told your father what I thought about it and I might go somewhere else also, since I don’t think I can stay together with the person who did this to my son…”  
“If you move away, can you let me know? I’ll come visit you. Cause I still love you mom. You never did anything wrong to me, I hope you know that.”

They parted again and afterwards, Hala and Moon could clearly see that the short interaction with his mother had left Guzma a lot less stressed and they even saw him smile as he was walking around with Boomer through Iki town.


	8. Revealed

Moon was woken up by the shaking of the bed as Guzma bolted up after yet another nightmare. He was breathing heavily, as if he was hyperventilating and his hands clasped at his face and tugged at his hair as he tried to catch his breath. She sat up alarmed and asked him “Guzma, Guzma what’s wrong!?” but all this brought back was Guzma hearing his father’s voice in his head _‘Guzma, what is wrong with you!?”_  
He screamed as if he was in pain and turned to sit on the edge of the bed, his feet touching the ground for a bit of stability. Moon wanted to comfort him, but she knew from experience that if he was like this it was best to keep distance until he sought comfort first.

When he had finally caught his breath again, he rested his head in his hands and looked to the floor “How-“ he started but stopped to think how he would finish the sentence. He then sighed and continued “How much do you know about my past? What did Hala tell you?” he asked. He knew that there was no way Hala could’ve kept everything a secret after all that had happened over the course of the past few weeks, months even. So he wanted to know just how much Moon knew since he already knew Hala knew everything about him and his rough past.  
“I… only know about your dad. Is… Is there more?” she asked hesitantly. Whatever this was she didn’t know, it had to be a heavy burden for Guzma.

“Do you wanna know why my dad beats me up all the time? Why he despises me? The entire reason why my whole life is so fucked up?” he asked her softly, his voice growing louder with every question he asked but still staying just above whispering so he wouldn’t wake up anyone else in the kahuna’s house.

Moon swallowed hard. Was she really ready to hear this dark part of Guzma’s past? She wanted to; needed to know it. Not only was she highly curious about it, she suspected that Guzma asked her this now because he needed this off his chest for a moment after the nightmare he had just had. Maybe this had been the thing plaguing him in his nightmares. She nodded slowly and wasn’t sure if Guzma had even noticed that she did so but as he started telling his story, she concluded that he must’ve noticed it.

“I,” Guzma sighed again “I had a twin sister…”  
Moon looked at him in shock, her mouth falling open upon hearing this. Why had she never heard of a twin sister? Surely another Guzma, even if female would stand out just like her brother, wouldn’t she? “What happened to her? Why did you never tell me?”

“When we were five, maybe six years old, we were playing together not far from home on route two. We both didn’t have a Pokémon back then, but our parents had a very loyal Stoutland that would look after us when we were playing outside and would get a parent when one of us got hurt or anything happened. Mind you; back then, the Mantine surf spot was still under construction and the ledge leading down to it was still under construction so we were told to stay away from there cause it was dangerous.” Guzma stopped for a second and chuckled a little as if he remembered all the mischief he had caused with his twin as kids before he continued “But being the little shits we were, we went to take a look there as soon as the Stoutland was dozing off in the sunlight anyway. We were just running around playing tag when I suddenly heard her scream… I’ll never forget that scream…” Guzma said and Moon could hear him sob into his hands and his back trembled with the shaky breaths he took. She put a hand on his back and rubbed it in circles as she sat on the edge of the bed with him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’ll never forget the sound of that Moon. You had no idea. I looked back and she was gone, she had tripped and lost her footing right at the edge. She had fallen off the edge. When I went back to check on her, I only saw her body laying motionless at the bottom on the sand. I called out her name multiple times, but she never responded. I only remember that I was crying hysterically when my parents arrived; what else could I do? I barely even knew what was going on…”

Guzma had to stop for a moment to wipe the tears away and calm his breathing as the memories started flowing back in before he could continue telling the story “My mom got into a really bad depression after that happened, which is honestly the natural reaction to losing a kid I suppose; but it meant she was mostly unable to properly care for me and most of my care got into my dad’s hands and well… Me and my dad never were the best of friends but he always acted normal to me before my sister’s death. I think it was because he really liked my sister… He blamed me for everything that happened and as I think back on it, I was mostly to blame too so I can’t actually be mad at him for that. But when my mom started going to therapy to work herself through all of this so she could take care of me at least and started to get a little better, dad started taking up an old hobby of him again and started golfing. But he started coming home more drunk every night and he started taking everything out on me. He lost a golf match, hit the kid. Get second place in a Pokémon contest, get hit. Even the smallest imaginable thing was enough to tick him off and I was scared I made too much noise with even just breathing to tick him off. I started off on my Island challenge late and never got far because of everything, which made my home situation even worse, cause now I was a failure and a murderer. By then, mom had gotten a lot better again and when she found me getting ready to run away from home one morning very early, she told me she understood and gave me some food instead of trying to stop me from going… and well, the rest you know…” Guzma concluded

Moon looked at him in shock as he told her everything. Hala had told her about the abuse Guzma had been through in his youth, but she had never expected there to be an underlying reason like this…  
“Guzma I…” she started, but she didn’t know what she could say to him. She didn’t know how to react to his shocking past. “I’m so sorry…”  
Guzma looked up with tears lined up in his eyes upon remembering everything again and pulled her in for a hug. They shared a quiet embrace, neither one of them knew what to say; they only knew that this embrace gave them comfort in this broken world both of them were living in.  
A little while later, Guzma sat up straight again and wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked Moon in her eyes “I am the one that should be sorry Moon. I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess that is my life, I’m sorry that I never told you anything about my past earlier on even though you deserved to know, I’m sorry I’m so fucking helpless… I’m gonna keep training and I’ll get a lot better, just you wait; and I’ll make you happier than anyone else could ever possibly could!” he told her.

She pulled him in for a kiss and when they pulled away again and looked into each other’s eyes, she told him “Guzma, you don’t have to work harder to make that happen. You already make me happier than anyone possibly could. I love you so much Guzma; and when I pushed you away I realised that I wouldn’t know what to do without you anymore. I want to be with you forever Guzma! I don’t care about your past or what you’ve done before we met or during your time in team skull or while you were working for Lusamine; all I care about is that you’re with me right now!”

“I love you Guz, and I never want to lose you again! I couldn’t bear to be without you for any longer…” she admitted as she kissed him again. Guzma looked stunned, did she really mean what she had just said? Did she really want to be with him for the rest of her days? “Do you really mean all that? Cause I would definitely like the same. I love you Moon, and I never want to lose you ever again…”

 

 


	9. Happiness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on the last chapter guys! I was so busy studying for my finals that I forgot to upload it again and again. I hope you guys will enjoy it and hope you all enjoyed this book!

“Guzma, can I speak to you for a moment; it’s important.” Hala had spoken those dreaded words just an hour ago. A few months had passed since the whole ‘thing’ with his dad had ended and he had started living at Hala’s place again. His mom occasionally came to visit him to talk or go out into town to get some tapu cocoa and Malasadas with Hau and Moon and Guzma had started to make major progress in his training/healing procedure. And now all of a sudden he was waiting outside Hala’s ‘office’ (basically just the living room during the day) because he had something important to tell him. Guzma hadn’t been this nervous in a while and was now walking up and down past the door on the porch. From a small distance, Moon and Hau were looking at him “Did Hala tell you what this is about?” Moon asked her younger friend who shrugged “I haven’t heard anything about it. Must be something really important or private.”

Then suddenly, they saw Guzma look up and then walk into the house and waited in suspense for any sign of Guzma.

When he came out only a few moments later, Moon ran up to him “Guzma, what did Hala tell you?”. Guzma shrugged; he looked fairly confused “He didn’t tell me anything really. He just said that Nanu wanted to talk to me that’s all. So I guess I’ll be flying over to Ula’Ula again. I might go say hi to Plumes and the guys over at Po town while I’m at it. You wanna come with me Moon?” he asked and Moon nodded as she took out her ride pager and waited for Guzma to do the same. They both called a Charizard to fly them over to Ula’Ula Island. They landed close to the police station Nanu lived and a few of his Meowth came to greet the two of them. Guzma gave the Meowth a quick pat on the head and then turned to Moon “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait outside for a bit though; Hala said it was pretty important and kinda confidential so I can’t really have anyone there with me…”  
“That’s okay Guz, I’ll be right here for support when you need me!” she told him in her ever so cheery manner and kissed him before she sent him off to the police station.

She patiently waited outside, petting some of the meowth that were walking around at her feet when she heard shouting coming from inside “You can’t be fucking serious old man! I was always told I’m not meant to do things like that by literally everyone! Besides, I’m too old for that now anyway… This wasn’t a funny joke Nanu, I thought it was gonna be something really important.” She heard Guzma’s voice and then Nanu’s immediately after “I keep telling you that I’m serious Guzma. Do I look like someone who would joke about something like that, or something at all really!?”

Moon giggled a little at that as she imagined Nanu being a prankster to Guzma and the rest of team skull in the days they still resided in Po Town; she was pretty sure it was the other way around.

The door was thrown open and Moon could see Guzma standing in the opening with a mixture of emotions on his face. Before she could call out to him to ask him what’s wrong, Nanu appeared behind him and said “If you really don’t believe me, why don’t you come with me as I show you? You’ve always been a man of actions, haven’t you?”  
Guzma looked at Nanu and then at Moon, as if urging her to help him make a decision. She nodded slowly and Guzma sighed “Fine, but Moon’s coming with us,” he demanded. It was then that Nanu noticed Moon sitting outside and greeted the girl with a wave. “That won’t be a problem,” Nanu concluded and Moon then walked over to Guzma and started following the old man in the direction of the Ula’Ula meadow.

“what was all that about Guz?” she asked the tall man walking next to her. Guzma patted her head and told her “Some bullshit about a new totem pokémon appearing in Ula’Ula meadow. Just like that would happen all of a sudden. I haven’t been gone that long from here, I would’ve noticed something for sure if that were happening; a Pokémon can’t just appear from nowhere…”  
Guzma sounded a bit unsure about everything he was saying, did he even believe what he was saying himself?

They followed Nanu inside the meadow and off the path till deep into the meadow where a cave was “A cave? I don’t remember that being here the last time I came here?” Guzma looked questioningly at Nanu. “Will you finally start to believe me now?” the old man said annoyed as he started walking into the cave. Moon brought out her Incineroar to light the path ahead and they soon entered a clearing in the cave. There was a little pool of water, some grass and the light from outside shone inside through a hole in the roof of the cave. Moon thanked her Pokémon before calling him back and walking up to where Guzma and Nanu were standing

“So, where is this new totem Pokémon? I don’t see any Pokémon here,” Guzma asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper as to not disturb whatever might be living here. Suddenly, Guzma’s hand went to his pocket as he felt one of his pokéballs vibrating. A red light flashed out of his pocket and Guzma’s Golisopod came out on his own “Boomer, what the fuck?” Guzma whisper-yelled but the big bug only looked into the far end of the cave and made some clicking noises. “He must’ve noticed the presence of the totem Pokémon.  
Just then, slight vibrations could be felt shaking the floor of the cave a little and Guzma looked at Nanu “Is that?”  
“That must be her, she must be reacting to a male trying to invade her territory,” Nanu explained and before everything could fall into place in Guzma’s mind, a big, dark looming shadow was standing over Boomer and Guzma. Guzma looked up and gasped as he saw the totem Pokémon up close.

“Hey Nanu, how come you didn’t tell me the totem Pokémon was so adorable?” Guzma asked and both Nanu and Moon shook their head as Guzma walked up to the totem Golisopod and handed her some pokébeans he had stored in his pocket. “Hey cutie,” Guzma started talking to the bug in his standard ‘I am talking to a bug and they are the most precious creature on the entire earth’ voice and Moon giggled a little as she looked at the tall man talking to the big bug as he handed her some pokébeans with Boomer standing on the side. When Boomer did try to come closer, he was growled at by the totem Pokémon and Guzma patted the large Golisopod saying “That’s just Boomer, he’s my buddy. He’s not trying to invade your territory.”

The two bugs slowly got closer together until their whisker like antennas touched each other and they slowly got to know each other. “So Nanu, what you’re saying is that the kahunas decided to give me a second chance by letting me make a bug trial here on Ula’Ula Island?” Guzma asked as he turned towards the old man while the two bugs were happily chirping to each other. “Well, it’s the ideal chance to show all of Alola how much you have changed in this short period of time; and who could be better to organise a bug trial than Alola’s strongest bug trainer?”

“But, I’m too old to be a trial captain…” Guzma said. It was true, trial captains were normally forced to retire at the age of eighteen so they still had the chance to get the fullest out of their lives and not be stuck as a trial captain for the rest of their lives, even though some of them wouldn’t mind being one until they really got too old for it. “And I live in a deserted police station with a bunch of Meowth and give them out as starter Pokémon instead of the proper ones Hala offers. The people on Ula’Ula really don’t care all that much. There’s nothing to worry about Guzma.”

Guzma let out a shaky breath “Thank you old man…”

 

Months passed quickly now Guzma was busy getting a while new trial ready for the kids on their island challenge and started working as a trial captain. Moon had never seen him this happy now he finally could do what he had always dreamed of doing. He also had some of his former grunts that were having a hard time getting back on track on their own helping him at the trial site and keeping the totem Pokémon content while he wasn’t there. Ula’Ula meadow was not that far from Po town where most of them resided anyway.

Moon tried to pass by his trial site as often as possible as she was on her way to or back from the Pokémon league and always enjoyed seeing Guzma do his work as a trial captain. She loved seeing him smile as he watched the kids try to catch the Wimpod carrying the Bugium Z and then fight the totem Golisopod. She loved seeing how Guzma joked around with the ex-grunts when there weren’t any challengers and how Boomer and the totem Pokémon had become the best buddies you could imagine. But most of all she loved seeing how his eyes lit up every time he noticed her and then came straight up to her for a hug and a kiss, or how he and the grunts would all be equally excited when they saw her come in around lunch time cause that meant she had prepared boxed lunches for all of them.

Guzma had drastically changed since he had become a trial captain. It seemed like he had forgotten everything that had happened with his dad and when the last of his bruises had started to fade, so did his insecurities and his depression. He had finally traded in his sweatpants and dented sunglasses for some black jeans and a pair of not dented sunglasses to plant in his fluffy bleached hair. His black team skull jacket had been permanently traded for his Wimpod jacket but was still laying around in his room at Hala’s place, together with his team skull necklace which had now been traded in for a trial captain’s amulet. It seemed like Guzma still couldn’t get the times he had when he was with team skull out of his head completely since Moon often saw him lingering as he walked past the jacket and necklace thrown over a chair in the room or Guzma putting on the jacket sometimes inside of the house and whispering to himself “The hated boss who beats you down and beats you down and never lets up, yeah big bad Guzma is here…” before hanging the jacket back over the chair as he shook his head at the thought of how he had confronted Moon multiple times with that exact phrase during her island challenge.

And as she walked into the cave that was his trial site today, it wasn’t any different. Guzma and the rest of the ex-grunts were all as happy to see her as a dog who saw his owner after a day of work. “Hey guys, I brought lunch!” she yelled and the whole crew cheered as they swarmed around her to collect their own bento. Guzma was the last one to get his and he sat down together with Moon to eat their lunch “You’re the best Moon, I hope you know that. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”  
“I know silly. You wouldn’t be anywhere without me,” she laughed as she teased him and poked him in his side “That’s just straight up mean babe, you shouldn’t put your boyfriend down like that,” he pouted and she kissed him to cheer him up again “Oh Guz, you know I don’t mean it like that.”   
Guzma pulled her in for a hug and whispered in her ear “I love you so much Moon, thank you for everything you’ve done for me…”

“I love you too Guzma…”

 

**_The End._ **

 


End file.
